Monday, 14 July 2008

The First

Hey guys,Thought I'd take the first step towards moving away to Vancouver by setting up my blog. As most of you know in three weeks I'll bepacking up all my kit here in Aberdeen and making the jump 7000km across the pond to Vancouver, BC. This will be my first venture into the wild as a teenager you could say, having spent the last 19 years at home under the close watch of my family and coaches I will have to fend for myself in the jungle that is the UBC Vancouver Campus. So far no nerves or second thoughts, only excitement looking forward to the next year being able to focus on my training 100% (and studies) and really give Triathlon a go for next year. Recently I have been travelling quite a bit. Spent two weeks at the end of June/beginning of July down in Stirling with my coach, Blair Cartmell, taking part in National squad training. This was in part to set me up technically for next year and also to give me a training boost after having eased off for the World Championships earlier last month. Everything seemed to pay off this weekend thankfully where I managed to pick up my first National title since 2006. In my first Non-Drafting Olympic distance triathlon I took the Scottish Junior title and fininshed top ten just infront of my new Team Manager-Phil Gray from Total Racing Int! Must mention however the swim leg of the race, there were not hundreds but thousands of jelly fish in the sea and after my near panic attack during the sea session at the National camp I was not looking forward to racing with my jelly friends again. Luckily they were not all of the stinging variety and I only picked up a few stings on the face (5 years back 6 people had to be taken to hospital :-/ ) that said pulling through the water and feeling like your in a ball pit of jelly fish is massively un-nerving and am just glad so many of us managed to complete the freezing 1500m with the added hurdle of jelly fish attacks. (I'm sure I saw one with teeth) On that note I am currently on a day off enjoying the sun up in Aberdeen. Open water swimming session tonight at Bert's Loch will flex the muscles a bit before heading back into training tomorrow, lets hope the sun stays outAs a Mr Mark Yoeman would call me; the man from AtlantisCheers for reading, Mike